IT’S GOOD TO BE IN ENGLAND NOW!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 10

IT’S GOOD TO BE IN ENGLAND NOW!

A Professor In The Home Guard

Ir Below we give extracts from a letter from Professor

W . K.

Hancock

of the University of Birmingham, broadcast recently

|| by the ABC. An earlier letter from Professor Hancock ap-

peared in "The Listener" of September 13, 1940 a

HAVE some spare time in the guard room belonging to my unit of the Home Guard; my section is on duty, and observation post is manned and sentries posted. It’s nearly midnight, and no air taid yet, It’s bound to come later! But you hear enough over the air and in the papers about the raids and about the way in which folk stand up to them. I want to write about something else. I have just come back from a training school for Home Guards, and my conception of our job has clarified as a result. I want to tell you about it, as it may be useful to you. I shall begin with a short history of military tactics. Battles in the good old days of manoeuvre, with a little modification, lasted through the time of Napoleon, and right down to 1914. Then from 1914 to 1916, we had the constipation of " warfare. Modern production made it possible for the nations to put in the field millions of men, dug in from neutral Switzerland to the North Sea. For a time it was thought that the only chance of ending the stalemate was to hammer a strong point and break through, straightening the line as the armies advanced. It was thought that you had to straighten the line because you had to keep continuous touch with your flanks. These tactics became more and more costly in men and material, and they did not give results. The stalemate seemed unbreakable. At this stage some young French officers thought out a new tactic-which the French higher command did not take up. But one of the officers was killed with the plan on him, and Ludendorff got hold of it. He used it in the spring of 1918, and almost won the war for Germany. This was the beginning of "infiltration." Instead of the smashing fist, you have the probing fingers — fingers with steel nails on them, the tanks. They probe for weak spots, follow through the gaps, and play hell in the rear. They don’t worry much about their flanks. Now, in these days, there is quick reaction between the tactics of attack and defence. The French found an answer to these early experiments in "infiltration"; it was defence in depth. When the Maginot Line was built, "depth" meant, roughly, 40 miles. But the Germans unfortunately went one better. They developed a new tactic of attack in depth. If you remember, last June France fell, although the Maginot Line was hardly in action at all. The stationmaster at Abbeville, 170 miles behind the Line, saw the Germans Jong before any soldiers in the Maginot Line did. How did it happen? Attack in Depth Well, "attack in depth" means a lot of things, followed out simultaneously. First, it still means the "probing fingers," tanks. These do not outrun their petrol, fas we expected them to do, because they carry it with them in dummy tanks. They @te supported by dive-bombers, mechanised infantry, and so on. Second, it fmeans crash landings by troop-carriers

and parachutists, getting into action far behind the enemy’s main forces. This had a shattering effect in Holland — think of Rotterdam! Third, attack in depth means Fifth Column work; sabotage against communications, against supplies, and, not least, against morale. The traitors guide the attacking bombers and ease things for the advancing tanks, while at the same time they disorganise the defence. But every tactic has its counter, and

we are finding — indeed, we have found — the answer to "attack in depth." The answer is the organisation of the whole people for war. No more innocent undefended railway personnel at places like Abbeville. The population of every village and suburb must be prepared to watch, to deal with traitors if there are any, and to resist the enemy as combatants. This may seem. impossible. If everybody is a soldier, who will produce the weapons which the soldiers must use,

the food they must eat, and the clothes they must wear? The answer is part-time soldiers, citizen-soldiers, producer-soldiers, and this is the Home Guard. You see it arises as a logical and inevitable development of tactics. It is a new kind of force. But it is most emphatically a necessary force, a useful one, and part of the combatant army. This is now the accepted War Office doctrine, and the War Office is really awake. Home Guard Drill Our training at the school fitted into this conception of our tactical significance. We call it "drill"; but the drill our fellows have now begun is based on the experience of the Spanish War, the Finnish War, and this year’s fighting in the Low Countries and in France. Musketry still counts a lot, because not many Home Guards have machine-guns, and they must do their best against dive-bombers with rifles. Controlled fire from cool lads can be effective. All sorts of open order count a lot, and so does camouflage. These things are the answer to air attack. Anti-tank practice is fundamentally important. That means endless practice with grenades and bomb-throwing. It also means practice with smoke screen, the technique of silent approach and of silent weapons; Boy Scout stuff ‘and street

fighting. You can imagine that all this was a change for me, after years of lecturing to other people. I enjoyed it, starting useful education again. Our teachers laid emphasis on discipline and on what we call "drill," but they laid most emphasis of all on intelligence and initiative. Another thing I’d like to emphasise is the spirit, There were 250 of us in this training school, and we were all sorts-mechanics, school teachers, and

so on. It was the most comradely and democratic company I’ve ever been in. Up from Below From the two training schools over 1000 men are returning every week with a new understanding of their job, a new technique and a new spirit. We make bombs as well as throw them. Britain is becoming a military nation again, but not a_ drageoned nation. It’s all coming up from below. Volunteer enthusiasts started it, and the War Office later took it

up. That is typical. Long, long ago the common people wanted to answer Hitler back, and the Government held them in, Churchill’s Government is different; it is giving us our head. Nothing like it has happened since the 17th Century. I’m delighted that we’re becoming a military nation again. It’s a necessary answer to the bullies who have made it impossible for quiet people to live in peace. We have to endure all they can do to us, and fight back and brefik their power. Some futile individuals say that it’s no good; they say that if we fight them we become like them, That isn’t true; or it’s only half true. In some respects we do become like them. We learn to throw bombs as we!l as they do, or better. But we do it as free men. We. do it under leaders of our own choosing, leaders whom we can get rid of if we choose, but leaders we are devoted to because they — oh, well, why find reasons for being devoted to Churchill? Four Months Ago-And Now Think of our situation four months ago; outsiders thought it hopeless. Think of it now-even outsiders are beginning to know that we shall win. It is Churchill’s work; or, rather, it is Churchill’s work and the people’s

work together, for the people insisted on having Churchill, and Churchill has put his trust in the people. He knew that the nation had reserves of courage which were waiting to be drawn on; he has proved that the more.they are drawn on, the more inexhaustible they become. I have a feeling in me that when we look back and can see things clearly, we shall recognise this English autumn as the turning point of the war. I have been saying to myself these days, "We have the Nazis beaten." This doesn’t mean that the war won’t go on for a long time. It doesn’t mean that we may not face serious reverses. But Nazi thuggery has met its first decisive check. The weakness of these thugs, as you might expect from their history, is their worship of brute force. If brute force doesn’t give results at first, they try more brute force, The recipe worked against the German democrats. It worked against Guernica. It worked against Warsaw, against Rotterdam, and against the whole of France. it Hasn’t Worked Now they have tried it against Lon-don-and it hasn’t worked. (1). Because a smaller force of higher quality is resisting. For the first time the German Luftwaffe has to fight before it can murder, and over this island it is losing the fight. (2). The ordinary folk will not be intimidated. The Nazis can bomb and bomb, but we shall not submit to them. They can break quite a lot of London, but they can’t break the Londoners. This is a new experience for Hitler and Goering, and it must be a frightening one. For the first time their method has failed to work. It marks the beginning of their end, though it may take us a long time to reach the end. It will be the same if they get troops across, as they may very well do. Now that we have made up our minds never to submit, we are unconquerable, Churchill has said that we shall, if necessary, defend London street by street. The reguiar army and the Home Guard have been practising street fighting. It is an expensive thing for attackers, * * It’s good to be in England now. When the war is over, I shall get back to Australia if I can. I shall feel the need of space and light and my oldest and best friends. But I wouldn’t be anywhere else now than just here in this little island, and among its ordinary people who have made up their minds to beat the bullies and rescue the world from the thugs. From my private and selfish point of view, the war solves the old conflict between thought and action. It was beastly to be sitting smug in a reserve occupation while my students were going to the front. Now the front is here: I am a parttime soldier, and at the same time doing my ordinary job. Moreover, I get a lot done, despite one night in five without any sleep at all while on observation duty, and many other nights of broken sleep. No slowing down of production! Also I am childishly pleased at the popularity I win through my uniform. The other day a woman gave me two pears. Nobody ever gives a professor two pears, not even an orange!